當德國製造遇到科技浪潮(中)

Now they are squaring up to the technological challenge.

現在，它們正勇敢面對技術挑戰。

Mid-sized companies globally are making progress on the internet of things in manufacturing.

在把物聯網用於製造業方面，全球各地的中型企業正取得進展。

In Japan, excavator maker Komatsu runs factories that receive data from diggers in use by customers to improve efficiency and reliability.

在日本，挖掘機制造商小松(Komatsu)經營的工廠從客戶使用中的挖掘機接收數據，以提高效率和可靠性。

At Swedish industrial group Sandvik, sensor technology is monitoring remote equipment from offshore drill rigs to rock crushing machines.

瑞典工業集團山特維克(Sandvik)使用傳感器技術監測從海上鑽機到岩石破碎機等遠程設備。

But most experts believe German midsized companies, with a history of innovation and decades of experience, are ahead.

但大多數專家相信，擁有創新歷史和數十年經驗的德國中型企業處於領先地位。

Hermann Simon, a Bonn-based consultant who has studied the Mittelstand for 30 years, says in this group Industrie 4.0 is  . . . taken very seriously.

在波恩工作的顧問赫爾曼.西蒙(Hermann Simon)研究德國中小型企業達30年，他表示，這些企業非常嚴肅地對待……工業4.0。

Ailke Heidemann, of the Stuttgart office of Boston Consulting Group, says Mittelstand companies with backgrounds in mechanical engineering are working urgently to bring on to their payrolls the experts they need in digitisation and data.

波士頓諮詢集團(BCG)斯圖加特辦公室的艾克.海德曼(Ailke Heidemann)表示，擁有機械工程背景的德國中小型企業正加緊招募它們需要的數字化和數據領域專家。

Here are three examples of Mittelstand businesses — each family-owned and more than a century old — approaching a new era for industry.

以下是3個正跨入工業新時代的德國中小型企業的例子——每一個都是家族企業，並擁有超過100年的歷史。

Digital farming

數字化農業

At Claas, Mr Kriszun says the company’s 300 software engineers, out of a global workforce of more than 11,000, are its most important employees.

Claas的克里斯尊表示，在該公司全球各地逾1.1萬名員工中，300名軟件工程師是最重要的員工。

We are seeing many opportunities [in electronics and software] that weren’t available five years ago, he says.

我們看到了很多（電子和軟件方面的）機會，5年前這些機會還不存在，他說。

The company has spent EURO2m on developing ways to automatically transmit information via satellite networks from the harvesters operating in fields to farmers or grain experts thousands of kilometres away, bringing to farms the sort of continual remote monitoring that is routine in many factories.

該公司投入200萬歐元開發通過衛星網絡將信息從田間作業的收割機自動傳輸到農民或者數千公里以外的穀物專家那裏的方法，從而把許多工廠中常見的連續遠程監測帶到農場。

It has produced an app for smartphones that operators of combine harvesters can use to help control machines or learn to do this better — and even leave them to operate alone.

該公司開發了一款智能手機應用，聯合收割機的操作者可以利用這款應用輔助機器控制，或者瞭解如何更好地操作機器——甚至讓這些機器自行運作。

Mr Kriszun points out that the 103-year old company is used to change.

克里斯尊指出，這家有着103年曆史的公司已經習慣改變。

We’ve had to adapt a lot, so [in taking up the new digital ideas] we’re not really doing anything that new.

一直以來我們不得不適應很多東西，因此（就接受新的數字化創意而言）我們並沒有真正做什麼非常新的事情。